Team Report: Trail Blazers' Two Owners Value Yang Hansen; Future NBA Play Style Will Mirror His Time with the Mix

On April 7 Beijing time, Trail Blazers' well-known team reporter Ha Jin discussed Yang Hansen on HoopsHype's latest podcast. He pointed out that the Trail Blazers' two owners highly value Hansen. Furthermore, topics like Hansen coexisting with Clingan, development league training, and future positioning were discussed. The main content is as follows—

Ha Jin mentioned that during the press conference introducing the new ownership team, Cheng Zhengchang, who co-founded Panda Express with his wife, was asked why he invested in the Trail Blazers. He frankly stated that as a Chinese person, he is optimistic about the Trail Blazers having a Chinese player and believes this can bring substantial business opportunities in China.

Later, another minority owner of the team, Hill-Tail, in an interview with The Athletic, also expressed his desire to build the Trail Blazers into an "Asian team." He even had dinner with Yao Ming, who mentioned how popular Yang Hansen is.

Ha Jin stated that among the two owners, one openly admitted that his investment was due to the team having a Chinese player, while the other wants to build the team into an Asian team. Clearly, Yang Hansen will definitely be a core part of the team's future plans.

When addressing the coexistence issue between Clingan and Yang Hansen, Ha Jin said: "Clingan is clearly not just an NBA starting-level center, but an exceptionally good one. His improvement has been significant—not only in physical conditioning and ability to handle starter minutes, but also in offensive output and game sense. He's a completely different player compared to last season and is undoubtedly a long-term core for the team. Regarding how he and Yang Hansen can fit together, I also agree—it's actually difficult for both to be on court simultaneously unless one develops into a stretch-five capability or can switch defensively to the perimeter. Clingan is strong in rim protection but can still be targeted against spacing-oriented interior players. However, the team's thinking at that time was that even with positional overlap, it's worth betting on talent like Yang Hansen."

Ha Jin mentioned that he watched many of Yang Hansen's games when he was assigned to the Mix because the arena is very close to his home.

"His playing style with the Mix is very similar to Summer League—basically operating from the top of the arc initiating offense and acting as a tactical hub. His three-point shooting is becoming more stable, and his defense is improving. The Trail Blazers originally wanted him to play a full year in the development league, but team injuries were too numerous, forcing them to add him to the NBA roster to fill spots. However, the way they utilized him in the development league is precisely the long-term usage model envisioned at the NBA level, though he still has some distance to reach that level."

Regarding the Trail Blazers' future, Ha Jin said: "There are three players on the team who are absolute long-term cores and definitely untouchable—they are Clingan, Avdija, and Kamara. Then Lillard obviously won't leave because he has a trade veto. Plus, considering what we just discussed about how the new owners view Yang Hansen, the management remains extremely optimistic about him. Aside from these five individuals, everything else could change. Holiday is particularly flexible—he could stay or go, with great uncertainty."